Anatolia
Anatolian culture is defined by extremes of the spiritual and the rational. Unrestrained by the seas between, Samarkand stretches an intricate weave of railways between the Talon Isles, her glorious architecture erupting from the earth like a continuing ocean of sapphire and bright chrome. They may try extricating themselves from the mysticism of their ancestors, but the traditions linger in their bewildered hearts. For down in the Badlands, everyone knows, science is but a foreigner's superstition. Anatolian Personas: Societies and Aspects The Anatolian Badlands Warriors race across the dunes. Rifles cradled in their arms, they throw themselves down into marksman positions. Terse silences, shaped only by their shallow breathing, are shattered by thundering mortars. Vollies of snapping carbines respond, bullets snatching bursts of red as howling men jerk and die. Where Persia encroaches into the Badlands, skirmishes like these have erupted for centuries, with no sign of ever ceasing. The law is swift and cruel to those who don't know it, and when Persians forget they are reminded by the ones who still live in the rolling desert. The Badlands Territories span from the Keshowar Sea to the South and West, the Inviolate Divide to the East, and the Varnel Green region and Haarloi mountain range in the North. Here, much the only governance is the tribal politicking between the major clans and their enforcement through peshmerga militias, however the are is technically under Sultanate control. Sultans and consols strive to work with the native culture, and so Sultans native to the Badlands gain higher preference in selecting a land to rule. For this reason, the Vanguard often finds themselves underutilized, and Warden influence is minimal. That being said, Warden commissaries do exist. The Waycross Trade Misunderstood carcasses dot the ravaged earth; spacecraft, forgotten industrial centers, military bases and ancient towns are strewn across the barren wilderness. Starting as children, nomads scour the detritus, ripping strange baubles from the unfathomable machines of the World Before, dragging their treasures back to be sold at the Waycross Markets. "Saltblisters" as they are derogatorily known, must be clever and dedicated in order to survive. When they are not dodging peshmerga patrols, they're navigating the deceits of the local warlocks, who they sell to, and who are always willing to sell meaningless scrawl to arrogant children and desperate widows. Both mistrusted and adored, warlocks are said to be educated in the forgotten arts of spiritual warfare, skilled at imprisoning spirits with papyrus and Northern inks, commanding them with enginespeech and True Names, or performing exorcisms. Saltiblisters and warlocks form a bond of mistrust, each willing to trade revolver shells and oblivion cigars for device schematics and activation phrases. They meet at the intersection of ley lines - the Waycross Markets. Here, mechana have congregated for millennia, inexplicably drawn to the flux of energy. So too, has religion. More often than not, cities which began as Waycross Markets can trace their lineage back to the construction of temples and synagogues, which are often the oldest architecture built before the Cataclysm. Syncbronze runs the economy of the World: the mines, the wondrous artifacts of the Lost Cities, and the chanting mystics of the Orphean Cults. Between the Badlands and Samarkand "In every Oasis, you will find Samarkand." Of course, this common phrase references the classic epic, The Hundredfold Chroncicles of Kharshakha''r, in which the oasis in question is a shifting unpredictability. Every time the hero stumbles in, a new thing is there concealed: first a pit of monstrous serpents, then a refuge for holy prophets, and lastly, a harem of sacred concubines, where his former wife is now conscripted. Every Anatolian knows the story from childhood. Invariably, the oft repeated phrase is muttered by toil-worn serfs from out in the wastes, eyes fixed on the fluttering capes and spotless jewels of the patrician class." - Aya Nodhal, Empyrean Coalition Academic Scholar Technology Handcrafted carbines, lever-action rifles, shotguns, and pistols are the most common firearms. Considering the high cost of black powder cartridges, and the fact that guild craftsmen handcraft most everything, assault rifles are rare signs of foreign power. Electrical based weapons are rarer, but extant. Fractal weapons are nigh unheard of south of Samarkand. Syncbronze is a fairly common, brassy metal containing often inert psychoreactive composites, with the ability to be encoded with unique properties. Most syncbronze artifacts are dormant, for all intents and purposes composed of just highly resilient metal. However, Enchanters from the Orphic Cults claim to have the power to 'awaken' powerful spirits lost in talismans and ancient syncbronze artifacts - or even deposit a new one. These "enchanted" weapons are few and far between. The Inviolate Divide is thought to be the result of a cataclysmically powerful syncbronze weapon, the likes of which has not been seen for many thousands of years. Guild craftsmen revere the sacred act of creation on Anatolia. On the whole, syncbronze is thought to be a sacred metal, while firearms are crass and profane. While rifles may be seen as a necessary evil, crafting one out of syncbronze is seen as an obscene violation of the metal. Orphean Magi Orphean Personas: Ranks and Aspects Magi of the Order of Orphic Wisdom explore the afterlife realms of the Bones Echo Cavern Phylactery, by making Excursions into the Beneath. Each venture outward should teach them something about the true nature of our World, and the secret machinations beneath human understanding. One way or another, they do learn the properties of strange artifacts from the world before. These syncbronze devices continually defy explanation, as they do not react to electricity or recognize specialized Neural Interfaces the way other "enchanted objects" do. There are many from Samarkand who believe that the Orpheans possess the last true magick left in all the Worlds of Empyrean. Demenni Adherents worship a pantheon of two splintered deities collectively known as the Versedevinni. While beliefs vary from cult to cult, the unifying premise is that each god manifests into several gender variants. Demenni, in the male aspect, serves as the bringer of disaster and divider of peoples; his clerics master the arm of speaking in tongues and commanding the elemental forces of nature. The domain of female Demenni is that of natural life: forests and fields, marshland and desert. She is greatly feared as an idol of fertility - the one who decides whether a peasant family shall survive the coming months and deserves a full harvest. Neuter Demenni is roughly translated as the "spark of all life." Versev Versev is always Demenni's child. Male aspect Versev is the conquering son. In tales where Demenni is his mother, he is known everywhere as a splendorous miracle and hero, though he must confront the diseases he inherits from his sinister father. These stories depict him succeeding always, a champion of virtue in the face of famine, gangrene, or assassin's poison. When Demenni is his father, he is a rampant titan fueled by righteous fury; a roaring devastation unfolding across the wildlands of his enemies. Female Versev awaits the Magi in the Death Realms, and helps guide them through Excursions. She leads them towards the neuter Versev, who always takes the truest form of the Searcher themselves. Notable Places Sprawling from the shadow of a lone and enormous mesa, the mining town '''Kolaraign' is the chief exporter of the drug Oblivion, as well as many virulent poisons, concocted from a strain of bulbous flowers native to its cavern system. Kolaraign is also the closest town to Volraha Shrine, a temple devoted to that forgotten god of agonizing clarity and redemption. Legends say the monks there possess the last remaining strain of a flower genetically created by the ancient Xian, whose petals have the ability to eradicate the dependencies of any addict. But the petals are fragile, and do not survive any climate but the temple oasis and its garden paradise. So to this day, grief-stricken addicts and family members grimly endure the two-week foot path through the mountain ridge, in search of a cure the inherited blight of their family. Desanna: capitol of the Haarloi Mountain range, separating the Badlands and the Northern marsh territory, and haloed with Entrenchment Rings. Khalsa-Kazi:'''Two rival cities whose beginnings and ends are no longer definite. Situated on either side of an immense chasm created uniquely deep Entrenchment Rings, the cities have spent 164 years spreading bridge-highways between them to bolster trade and uphold the Persian Accord. Khalsa, a center of mountain trade, hunting, navigation and techno-mystic enclaves funded by Samarkand, recently began decimating many of the most ancient bridges, severing ties both symbolically and literally with Kazi, a coastal experiment in rapid industrialization backed by Shemyaza from Sheol MIC. '''Narül Naruul: Built over a crater, the remnant of a long-forgotten war or passing meteor, the city's flourishing into a manufacturing and mechanical center only makes it current resurgence of tribal militias and drug trade, and crippling poverty that much more unfortunate. Like many temple-and-market waystations where Badlands nomads frequently congregate, Naruul rest on an intersection of ley-lines. Many of those nomads stay, and begin simple, agricultural lives made possible by the Streghor Coven's efforts to rekindle the soil in the crater beneath the city. Now, the Coven asserts dominance over the political autonomy of the citizens, which the local Sultans find to be an overstepping of bounds. Samarkand Ceridian (capitol of Samarkand): enormous, interworld hub of trade, technology, and information. Ethnic and culturally diverse, connected to the Jharka Space Elevator and the orbital Kozma Satellite. Charwynd: paradisiacal tourist trap Landscape, Flora, and Fauna Dominated in the south by immense stretches of craggy desert scrub known as the Badland, and the reputably haunted northern marsh territories, Anatol's reputation for achingly beautiful landscapes and people is matched only by that of its strange, shapeshifting animal life, and the fire of its native pride.